Humans differ from closely related primates species, such as chimpanzees and macaques, in many aspects of their phenotype. In our work, we study features separating humans from other primate species at various levels at molecular phenotype: gene expression, transcript splicing, evolution of novel non-coding RNA transcripts, as well as changes in metabolite concentration. Taken together, these studies shed light on some aspects of human evolution and provide novel insights into mechanisms of human disorders, such as autism.

Biography

Philipp Khaitovich, born in Moscow, Russia in 1973. Completed undergraduate studies in molecular biology at Moscow State University in 1995 and PhD in Biological Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1999. He worked from 2000 till 2006 as a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology at the department of Evolutionary Genetics headed by Prof. Svante Pääbo. In September 2006, Philipp Khaitovich joined the Partner Institute for Computational Biology in Shanghai organized by Chinese Academy of Sciences and Max Planck Society as a Max Planck group leader. In 2012 Philipp Khaitovich received 1000 Talent Award and became a department director at the Partner Institute for Computational Biology.